Really, I was going to write something more substantive

but instead today I am going to enthrall you with our pre-K dilemma.  Hopefully it will at least make you slightly appreciative of your own fine local schools.

NYC actually has a free "universal" pre-K program.  "Universal" being more a description of its ideal form than reality as it accepts about 10% of applicants.  Less in some districts, more in others.  But somehow we got a spot through the lottery.  We found out at midnight on Sunday night and had the tour today.

And here's the thing: it's fine.  Honestly, not all that different from the Catholic school which we had chosen due to budgetary constraints.  It's actually quite close to us (even though our district technically has no universal pre-K spots), free, has nice classrooms, a playground reserved just for pre-K, a teacher and an assistant per classroom plus some special extra teachers (librarian, music, computers).  And y'all know that we love the idea of a local, public school even if it has a few drawbacks.  I should also add that because NYC school cut off is the calendar year and the fusspot has a December birthday, she will most likely be the youngest in her class.  She will also only be THREE FREAKIN' YEARS OLD when she starts and all fall.  I kind-of prioritize age appropriate teaching in my wishlist.

So here's my ideal list for a pre-k:

- warm, loving, friendly
- blocks, puzzles, books, dolls.  Anything that encourages play

Here's what the school tour focused on:

- computers (it's a technology magnet school).  Not only do they have weekly computer time but also multiple computers in every classroom.  Now, I get that this is trendy, possibly nice for older kids ... but when we visited the computer lab there were 35 kids warehoused with one very relaxed teacher monitoring.  The little guy next to me had an adobe download error screen and just sat there for a good 10 minutes.  Seriously, I really doubt that our kids are going to have all that much trouble figuring out basic computer skills and I find the claims of "educational games" for 3 year olds bogus.  Totally fine to kill time, not exactly useful.
- literacy (all of the kids were writing their names).  See not above on "she's freakin' three years old" for a succinct summary of my thoughts on the matter.  Also, insignificant anecdote but I personally did not read until 4th grade and consider myself sufficiently literate today.

Other mildly concerning issues:
- The only school statistics indicate that this school has a grade of C and only 30% of kids read at grade level.  Oh, and 85% free lunch (and 60% non-native English speakers).  But those statistics are also 3rd graders and the pre-K is a fairly separate student population
- The teachers looked tired.  Which I get, it's June.  But they did not exactly exude warmth, although the head teacher for pre-K seemed great
- Um, good call by another parent on the tour noticing and asking ... one classroom had worksheets done in Spanish.  The school in general is 60% native Spanish speakers (although not the pre-K which looked closer to 30%), but this is not listed as a bilingual or immersion room.  Honestly, this is probably just me being grumpy.  See, our kid is bilingual but not in Spanish and I really don't want to expose her to another language while she's still working on being fluent in a native tongue (and yes, trilingual, "the mind is a sponge" people comment away but when my kid was trilingual she also went mute ... see archives around 17 months for many, many hearing tests ...).  I also asked the head teacher if we could just opt into another classroom and she basically blew me off but there's a 2/3rds chance we won't have to deal with this at all, and if we do get assigned to that room I can always raise a fuss
- Oh, and homework.  For 3 year olds.  All I can say is over my dead body.  She may get homework, but it's going straight into the trash can.  The school gets her 9 to 3, I get the rest of the time.  And no, there is no good evidence to suggest that worksheets or homework help with education in elementary school at all.  I totally get the theory that they help encourage parents to turn off the TV and interact with their kids ... but then again we don't even own a TV and have already committed to reading to our daughter for at least a half hour every day ...

My strong suspicion is that we'll pick this option.  It's free, public, local, looked pretty cute.  I even went so far as to get the e-mail of another parent on the school tour so we could do a late summer playdate and hopefully the fusspot would at least recognize someone in pre-K.

I'm obsessing too much right?  The only major perks of the Catholic school are being a bit more warm and welcoming.  And of course, there's the whole downside of trying to explain away Jesus  (no offense to any of my readers and all previous posts re: Catholic schools should assure you that I am deeply grateful for the option of inexpensive Catholic education.  And as I told the principal, I really do believe that any religious ideas which are appropriate for elementary age kids are universal.  But then again ... I'd rather delay the "Some people believe in this, we happen to think they are wrong" conversation until the fusspot is a bit older).  I guess that my wish for a real open-ended play-based classroom is impossible unless we decide to pay the $20-30,000 that such programs run in our neighborhood.  I really wish that the current educational trend was not more and more testing and pushing literacy earlier and earlier even if it makes no sense ... but it is and we'll probably have to deal with that anywhere.  And while I'm still tempted to just hold the fusspot out of pre-K entirely, she is SO excited to start big girl school.